I've lived many lives: serial entrepreneur, technology and CEO advisor, venture capitalist, engineer in the early days of Microsoft. Today I help CEOs in rapid growth and turnaround scenarios to achieve previously unheard of results through seeing into their blind spots, aligning their team and Board, changing challenging behaviors, increasing team accountability and execution. Some call me a Business Strategist, some call me an Executive Coach.

Secrets of Silicon Valley's Coolest Cultures: How To Get And Keep Top Talent

Revolution Foods is changing the way kids K-12 eat. CEO Kristin Groos Richmond, a former Wall Street exec and Kirsten Saenz Tobey founded the company in 2006. All staff get stock options—drivers, dishwashers, hourly workers, everyone. This is non-trivial as they’ve doubled in size each year–by this fall they’ll have 1,000 employees.

The Rev Foods team likes to keep things light. Every office makes a holiday video and at each region’s holiday party they screen the videos. Oh—and everyone MUST take vacation… where they unplug totally.

Top performers in each position per region (be they in dispatch, assembly, chefs, anywhere) are selected for the training team. This team then launches new markets. Top performers are cultivated and easy to track, since each team member has an Individual Development Plan and is reviewed twice per year.

Eventbrite, an online event-booking company, has some super cool cultural rituals. Julia Hartz, President, and Kevin Hartz, CEO, decided to put all of Julia’s energy on the people of Eventbrite (whom they call Britelings) as their team grew from 30 to 100 in one year. Now they have 200 staff and their growth shows no sign of slowing. Here are 2 of my favorite rituals:

Weekly Heart2Hartz: these are optional, no-holds-barred, 30 minute group Q&A sessions with the President and CEO. Team members can either submit questions anonymously in advance, or ask them then and there. Tough questions are welcome. Here are some examples:

How close are we to hitting our forecasted revenue numbers?

What keeps you up at night?

What are the two biggest new things we learned as a company in 2011? What are two big questions we want to answer in 2012?

Image: Eventbrite's Heart2Hartz, credit: Eventbrite.com

Eventbrite holds internal training events called BriteCamp. This program was created and executed by a Briteling for Britelings. It is an interactive environment where staff can learn about new/interesting topics amongst peers. BriteCamp was not mandated by management—and the topics are not only work-oriented. What I love is how this program empowers staff to speak up and share info, which helps foster a culture of candor and collaboration. BriteCamps are usually around lunchtime hours and have about 25+ people attending, and topics range from understanding vertical markets better, to learning about SEO or even learning how to play poker.

Education, Career evolution, adventure and making a difference, stock options, food, feeling like part of the tribe–all boost recruiting, retention, and cool culture.

How are you attracting and retaining super stars? What cultural rituals do you have?

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